Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for recognizing lane partition lines on opposite sides of a traveling lane based on an image captured by a vehicle-mounted camera.
Related Art
In recent years, there have been proposed various driving assistance apparatuses for recognizing lane partition lines on opposite sides of a traveling lane on a roadway based on an image captured by a vehicle-mounted camera. As an example, an apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-72512 is configured to limit an image processing area to prevent an increase in processing load and misrecognition.
During a lane change, the vehicle moves away from one of lane partition lines of the traveling lane and approaches the other lane partition line. In addition, one of lane partition lines of a traveling lane after the lane change is farther away from the vehicle. Therefore, the one of the lane partition lines of the traveling lane before the lane change that is in a direction opposite a lane change direction and the one of the lane partition lines of the traveling lane after the lane change that is farther away from the traveling lane before the lane change are prone to get lost, which may result in a situation where only the lane partition line the vehicle approaches is recognized. As a result, a curvature recognized from the detected lane partition line is prone to vary, which leads to unstable partition line recognition. Steering control based on such unstable partition line recognition may cause a driver of the vehicle to feel uncomfortable.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing an apparatus for recognizing lane partition lines on opposite sides of a traveling lane on a roadway, capable of rapidly detecting lane partition lines of a traveling lane after a lane change, thereby improving the stability of lane partition line recognition.